SURREY — It’s a subtle touch to their game-day jerseys, but one being worn with great pride by the players who make up the senior boys varsity rugby team at Surrey’s Earl Marriott Secondary School.

On one side of the nautical steering wheel which serves as the Mariners’ insignia, there is a maple leaf. On the other, a Japanese cherry blossom.

“We kind of wanted to be able to blend the two this year,” Mariners’ head coach Adam Roberts explains.

That’s because Earl Marriott embarks on the most prestigious series of international tests in its program’s history as part of an elite field of invite-only sides set to compete in Sanix World Youth rugby tournament, April 28-May 5 in Fukuoka, Japan.

“It’s basically the world championships of high school rugby,” continues Roberts. “You don’t apply. The host nation calls. And you will be playing against guys that will be playing in the next World Cup, and Super 15 professional rugby.”

When Rugby Canada asked the school in October if the Mariners were interested, Roberts didn’t hesitate.

“(Carson Graham head coach) Tom Larisch took his team there a few years ago and he told me that it was an awesome experience,” continued Roberts. “So when Rugby Canada called, I said for sure. You never know if an opportunity like this will ever come again.”

Canada’s reputation at the event took a huge leap forward last season when the country’s top schoolboy side, Vancouver Island’s Shawnigan Lake Stags, completed a shocking 17-14 upset of New Zealand’s Kelston Boys School in the pool stage of the tournament. The landmark victory over the rugby-mad nation’s reigning high school champions was further enhanced as Kelston recovered and went on to win the 2012 Sanix title.

This season, Canada’s lone entry will get everything it can handle and more from the rest of the 20-team field which includes international invitees St. Joseph Nudgee College (Australia), Hartpury College (England), Lycee A.R. Lesage (France), Baekshin School (South Korea), St. Kentigern College (New Zealand), Enisei-STM (Russia) and Daniel Pienaar Technical (South Africa).

And although Earl Marriott is not considered among the title-contending elite in B.C. — Shawnigan Lake and Vancouver’s St. George’s Saints considered the top two sides — Roberts wears his heart and his maple leaf on his sleeve when he speaks to the conviction with which his team will battle at Fukuoka’s Global Arena on the island of Kyushu.

“They are all just kids, too,” Roberts said of the competition. “They’re the same dudes, they’re all the same age. We will give anyone a game. We don’t back down. We have a lot of boys with the jam to get in front of people.”

Coming off a 17-3 loss to the visiting Yale Lions of Abbotsford in a Fraser Valley clash on Tuesday afternoon, the Mariners are not only a fearless bunch, they are a unique one as well.

“This year’s group has really come out of nowhere,” Roberts explains. “A lot of the top (B.C.) programs have a big pedigree through the Canadian rugby scene, but we’ve flown under the radar a bit because a lot of our guys have come from other sports backgrounds. We’ve got the hockey players and the baseball players. Really, we’re at the mercy of whoever comes through the front door. But we rock with the people we’ve got.”

Among that list of players: Captain Kai Duchnycz, who leads the team through their 6 a.m. runs; talented flanker Thomas Choi, who moved into the neighbourhood from Abbotsford over the off season; fly half Colin Stonier; Grade 11 No. 8 Calixto Martinez.

There’s even a professional skateboarder in the midst, outside centre Colton Killoran, a long-boarding specialist whose breathtaking balance and nerve is evident for all to see on the U.S. website skateslate.com.

“You can see how his balance and his stability has transferred to rugby,” laughs Roberts. “He is a smooth athlete, and he understands how to get into space and tackle.”

The timing of the trip is not ideal in terms of the demands it will place on the team in the stretch drive to the provincials in late May, but the Mariners can’t wait to see the cherry blossoms.

“We love to smile,” the coach says. “We embrace everything about the game of rugby. And that is the biggest thing. All of our kids leave EMS loving what the sport has done for them. And I think that is what everyone else around rugby sees when they look at us.”

STAGS HOST NATIONAL EVENT

Shawnigan Lake School will play host to some of the country’s top independent schools at a boys and girls invitational rugby tournament slated to run April 19-21.

Schools from Ontario and Quebec will join a host of B.C. schools to make up the eight-team girls field and the nine-team boys field.

Last season, Shawnigan Lake won the B.C. boys Triple A title for a fourth straight season with a victory in the final over North Vancouver’s Carson Graham. Brentwood College completed the Vancouver Island sweep with a triumph in the title tilt over Collingwood of West Vancouver.

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Head of the Class 2014

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